Enjoying two short stays in WWE, Chris Masters last competed for the sports entertainment giant in 2011. ‘The Masterpiece’ has since set up shop on the independent circuit, having competed for IMPACT Wrestling, the National Wrestling Alliance, and everywhere else in between.
Though he did return for a second go-around in the McMahon-fronted organisation between 2009 and 2011, Chris Masters noted that he didn’t want to make plans for a third run, having failed to achieve much of note in the first two outings. Speaking to Steve Fall on NBC Sports Boston’s Ten Count, Masters revealed that he had to move on from WWE:
“In terms of a comeback, all I can say is the desire is always there a little bit, because this is what I love to do and I still do it. Even as far as last year, as long as I’ve been outside of WWE, I’ve never pitched to come back. It’s just because I didn’t look at it like an option after the second time. After the first time, sure, but after the second time, it’s like, I gotta move on. I still wanna wrestle, but it’s just not gonna be on television with WWE, and that’s okay.”
Chris Masters Wanted To Test The Hurt Lock
Although he initially didn’t want to come back, that changed for Chris Masters when he saw an opportunity for an angle with Bobby Lashley at the Royal Rumble. With Lashley utilising a Full Nelson submission dubbed the Hurt Lock, Masters wanted to put it to the test against his own Master Lock:
“When you also think of the whole Bobby Lashley aspect – the idea of the Hurt Lock-Master Lock thing – and so when Royal Rumble came around, I kind of started petitioning for it a little bit. There was some talks with some of the people I knew in WWE, so it wasn’t it was just going on deaf ears, but Bobby Lashley ended up not being in the Rumble.”
Chris Masters and Bobby Lashley collided twice on WWE programming, with ‘The All Mighty’ Lashley winning both encounters in 2007.